Manuel Mejia

mmejia@tnc.org

Community Conservation Manager, TNC Hawaiʻi Marine Program

Manuel spent the last two decades leading biodiversity conservation projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including growing the Locally-Managed Marine Areas Network across seven countries in the Pacific. Since joining The Nature Conservancy in 2006, Manuel helped launch the Hawaiʻi Marine Conservation Fellowship Program, which provides dedicated young conservationists with professional development and growth opportunities in Hawaiʻi, and The Great Huki, a community-based conservation project at Oahu’s Maunalua Bay. As Hawaiʻi’s Community-Based Program Manager, Manuel serves as primary liaison to community-based marine conservation partners and played a key role in launching this pilot project to capture and share tacit knowledge to strengthen and accelerate effective community-based conservation across the Pacific. (Interviewed by Sean Marrs, May 2016.)